The Second Detachment

By the time the first detachment set sail, the second detachment was already on its way to Indianola. Company K departed Camp Wood, about 40 miles north of present day Uvalde, on March 15, 1861. Captain Charles J. Whiting, who would command the regiment during its ill-fated charge at Gaines’ Mill the following year, commanded the company. Captain James Oakes followed from Fort Inge on the 19th with Company C.

The final and most spirited departure was conducted by Captain Richard W. Johnson and his command. As the senior company commander at the post, he led the evacuation of regimental headquarters at Fort Mason, 80 miles from San Antonio, on March 29th. His command consisted of the regimental band as well as Companies A and F. Relations between the cavalrymen and state forces had become increasingly strained and acrimonious as the time for the command’s departure approached, to the point of couriers being searched and detained. As a result, Captain Johnson chose to turn a blind eye when some of his troopers torched the fort after the command’s departure.

When the command reached San Antonio, Johnson decided that the regiment wouldn’t leave without making a final statement. Ignoring the presence of armed state forces in the city and the state flag flying over former department headquarters at the Alamo, they paraded through the streets of the city with regimental standard and company guidons flying and the band playing patriotic tunes. No violence occurred, and loyal citizens presented them with a large American flag as they exited the city.

They reached Goliad the next day, where they reportedly cut down a state flag and cut it into mule harness streamers. Their march continued to Green Lake, traveling near but not with a company of the 8th Infantry. Each night, the infantry company would pass Johnson’s column before halting for the night. On the final night of the march before reaching Green Lake, Johnson resolved to arrive first. He departed his camp at 3am and arrived at Green Lake several hours before them. As luck would have it, there was a ship waiting at Indianola and his command was ordered forward while the infantry company remained at Green Lake.

The steamship Empire City was too large to enter the port at Indianola, so the troopers and their families were forced to use a smaller boat to ferry them out to the ship. The ship, with the entire second detachment aboard under the command of Captain Whiting, sailed the next day. They stopped briefly in Havana, where they learned of Fort Sumter’s surrender on April 14th, before arriving in New York on April 20th. They moved by train from New York to Carlisle Barracks, where the companies reported for duty on April 27th.

The day after the Empire City departed, state forces under the command of former major of the regiment Earl Van Dorn seized the port. They captured the Star of the West, the same ship that had attempted to resupply Fort Sumter, and several companies of soldiers from the 8th Infantry waiting to embark on her.

Resignations and absences continued to take their toll. Only 13 of the regiment’s officers accompanied the regiment out of Texas. Among them were captains Palmer, Whiting, Stoneman, Brackett and Johnson, as well as lieutenants Jenifer, Royall, Chambliss, Lowe, Harrison, Kimmel, Arnold and Porter.

The vast majority of the enlisted men remained with the regiment, despite generous offers of good pay and large bounties for joining state units. Desertion rates for this period were no higher than for the year before. I suspect that this was due to the large number of immigrants in the regiment. Secession and states rights would have been an abstract concept, while the regiment was both home and family to them.

The First Detachment

The regiment was somewhat fortunate in its postings at the time of Twiggs’ surrender. Although spread between eight different forts and camps, the farthest two companies were only about 250 miles from San Antonio. The regiment might have saved a great deal of its equipment had it been able to assemble in northern Texas and march out of the state, but it wasn’t possible to do so. Captains Oakes, Stoneman and Whiting met at Fort Inge to discuss the feasibility of such an attempt. They came to the reluctant conclusion that there were insufficient animals, wagons and stores available to assemble the regiment and move it north through what would then be hostile territory.

In late February the regiment began to evacuate its posts. Prior to this, on January 28th, Captain Albert G. Brackett moved his command from Camp Ives four miles south to Camp Verde, a more defensible position. Pursuant to the Order of Exercises, companies were to marshal at Green Lake, approximately 130 miles southwest of San Antonio. On February 21st, Captain Brackett led Company I from Camp Verde to begin its march. Among the property left behind for the Texans were the 53 remaining camels from the former secretary of war’s experiment and their two Egyptian handlers. They were reportedly used to haul cotton to Mexico to trade to the British for supplies during the war, and sold off to several circuses after it. The same day, Captain Innis Palmer led his squadron consisting of Companies D and H from Camp Cooper, near Abilene. His was the farthest march to Green Lake, nearly 400 miles.

Five days later, on February 26th, Captain E. Kirby Smith led Company B from Camp Colorado to Green Lake by way of Fort Mason. There had been a rather tense stand-off between Captain Smith and Henry McCulloch, who commanded several companies of state troops. McCulloch demanded the immediate surrender of all property of the troopers and the camp, including their side arms. Smith informed him that he would not dishonor his soldiers in such a fashion, and would indeed attempt to cut his way free of the fort if forced to by McCulloch. Smith received notice of Twiggs’ surrender the following day. After negotiating the retention of his soldier’s mounts, weapons, and ten days of rations, he led his men out of the fort.

This was the extent to which duty and honor pervaded the majority of the professional army at the outbreak of the war. Less than a month and a half later, Smith would resign his commission after his command arrived in New York harbor. In the meantime, he was responsible for leading it to safety.

Companies E and G moved by steamboat from their respective posts to Brazos Santiago, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Captain George Stoneman evacuated Camp Hudson on March 17th with Company E, followed by Company G from “Camp on the Rio Grande” on March 20th. The commander of Company G, Captain William R. Bradfute, did not make the move with his company, resigning his commission the next day. From Brazos Santiago, the two companies moved north up the coast to Indianola, where they joined the other four companies.

These six companies formed the first detachment of the regiment to depart the state. Under the command of Captain Palmer, they boarded the steamship Coatzacoalcos on March 31st in Indianola. They sailed from there to New York by way of Key West and Havana, to be met on their arrival by Major George H. Thomas on April 11th. Captain Palmer and his squadron were ordered immediately to Washington, while the other four companies moved by train to Carlisle Barracks to draw mounts and refit.